Stats show more women studying math & science

OTTAWA - Canadian university students - especially women - are betting that math, science and engineering are the future, new Statistics Canada figures show.

CBC reported this week that StatsCan has found the fastest growth in university enrolment between the academic years 1997-98 and 2000-01 was in mathematics, engineering and all kinds of sciences. In those fields, as in virtually all others, women represent an increasing proportion of the students.

There were 861,700 university students in Canada in 2000-01, of whom 494,700 were women (57 per cent). There were 137,000 university students studying math, science and engineering in 2000-01, of whom 33,400 were women (24 per cent).

Enrolment in math and physical sciences was up nearly 19 per cent, while engineering and applied sciences grew nearly 10 per cent. The number of women in both groups jumped by more than 20 per cent.

Figures show total university enrollment increased by 4.7 per cent between 1997-98 and 2000-01. Education and agriculture were the only areas where enrolment shrank.